The newish album by Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett has been filling my eardrums lately. The first question we must ask is if they only got together because their names were Kurt and Courtney. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened. I mean, we all remember Kort, the collaboration between Kurt Wagner & Courtney Tidwell, don't we? I dunno, maybe there was even another famous Kurt & Courtney prior to this...
Anyway, the union between this latest Kurt & Courtney seems a bit one-sided if you ask me, with the wonderful Ms. Barnett doing all the heavy lifting and Kurt Vile merely turning up to look pretty. A bit like Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in reverse, except Nancy had a better singing voice than Mr. Vile.
The songs mostly sound like Courtney Barnett songs though - full of oddball observational details and that guitar...
I'm going to go out on a limb now and say that Courtney Barnett is the best guitarist in contemporary "indie" (if we're still allowed to call it that). I'll go you one further: she is the 21st Century Johnny Marr. Don't believe me? Close your eyes and listen to this and tell me you can't hear Johnny, 30+ years ago...
